Disneyland’s Monsanto House of the Future was built in 1957 to demonstrate plastic’s versatility. Closed in 1967, demolition crews tried wrecking balls, torches, chain saws and jackhammers, finally crushing the home into small pieces, using choker chains. The giant steel bolts to mount the house into the foundation broke prior to the structure itself [1]. Plastic is inextricably linked to modernity in our lives. There would be no modern world without The Magnificent Seven—PET, HDPE, LDPE, PP, PS, PUR & PMMA [2].

In 1937, an accidental drop of acid in Otto Bayer’s polyurethane revolutionized our comfort with soft foam [3]. Synthetic plastic resin in plywood makes it harder, stronger and lighter than traditional wood [4]. Injection molding developed the ability to make any shape faster [5].

Wallace Hume Carothers at Dupont replaced silk with yoga pants by a long chain polymer known as nylon [6]. Low density polyethylene was stretched thin to wrap around meat, produce and baked goods [7]. People learned from nature and evolved it. The shell of a turtle is in fact a natural polymer [8]. John Wesley Hyatt created celluloid as a replacement for ivory, saving the elephants [9].

Henry Ford created the futuristic hemp car in 1941, designed to run on hemp fuel and made of agricultural plastic. The car body and fenders were made of hemp fiber, wheat straw and corn to ration steel for WWII. This plastic was phenol formaldehyde (PF) [10], a resin that can biodegrade with white rot fungus [11].

The second World War created an abundance of plastic [12], 90% of which was never recycled [13]. It is indestructible and lingers for centuries, only breaking down into microplastics. The drama of plastic is that it is an impenetrable wall for the cycle of life. The question is, will plastic ever come to life?

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1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsanto_House_of_the_Future
2 https://www.polymersolutions.com/blog/modern-life-and-plastics/
3 https://innovations.hennecke-group.com/en/112/definitely-nothing-sneer-worldwide-success-story-polyurethane
4 http://www.open.ac.uk/about/broadcast-media-sales/tv-sales/science-technology/everyday-miracles
5 http://www.open.ac.uk/about/broadcast-media-sales/tv-sales/science-technology/everyday-miracles
6 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallace_Carothers
7 https://www.polymersolutions.com/blog/modern-life-and-plastics/
8 https://www.gia.edu/doc/SP06A3.pdf
9 https://zerowastezone.blogspot.com/2019/10/plastics-double-edged-sword.html
10 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soybean_car
11 https://botit.botany.wisc.edu/toms_fungi/gusse_et_al_phenolic_resins.pdf
12 https://www.plasticstoday.com/business/design-world-war-ii-plastics-and-npe
13 https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-02-21/plastic-waste-never-recycled-u-s